There's some poker content in this post, I promise.
I recently attended a production of one of my all-time favorite plays, Our Town by Thornton Wilder. This one was at the university theatre with guest star Ken Kercheval in the role of the Stage Manager (think Dallas). Our Town is a deceptively simple play with subtle threads of deeper meaning woven throughout the fabric of the turn of the century life the play depicts.
At its core, Wilder is reminding us to value those everyday trivialities which carry us through, moment by moment. Each day awakens and carries on whether we are there to participate or not and, when we pass out of this existence, what we knew, felt and experienced dissipates on the wind that brushes past our tombstones or carries our ashes away.
Simplistically, Wilder says we are born, we live, we die. We can treasure each moment, as Emily learns - almost too late, or we can hang ourselves with cynicism and choose to exist within self-pity and denial, as depicted by the character of Mr. Stimson, the "town drunk." Whatever we choose, the clock keeps ticking, life and death ebbs and flows as steady as the tide, and our world, Our Town remains eternal.
Segué, then, to a book - Just A Geek - which I finshed a few weeks back and is written by fellow (and most popular) blogger Wil Wheaton (and very reminiscent of another Star Trek icon's attempt to divorce from his character - Leonard Nemoy's I Am Not Spock).
Do you remember that kid in school or who lived down the block from you who was the kid you were always trying to get away from? You know who I'm talking about - he was the one who'd be saying "can I come, too?" and, no matter how crafty you got or how hard you tried, you just couldn't lose him (kind of like trying to shake loose that guy who's cold calling you all the way to the river...). For Wil, that guy's name is Wesley Crusher.
In an attempt to get away from that kid, Wil committed what many entertainment pundits, fans and show-biz wannabees would call career suicide when he walked away from Star Trek -TNG to pursue the elusive Film Career™. Well, long story short, the film career didn't happen and Crusher just would not go away.
On the surface Wil's tale would seem, as one (barely credible) critic intimated in the rag Entertainment Weekly, as an endless lament for what once was but no longer is. But if one has read the book and come away with that opinion, well then one hasn't read the book. Or one has all the depth of petrie dish.
Wil's examination comes full circle in relation to the cornerstones of his life - chief among them, and former nemesis, Star Trek TNG and the character of Wesley Crusher. Former, because Wil ultimately learns that neither Star Trek, a Film Career™, nor celebrity would bring him the validation he, like all of us, crave. Those things do offer validation, but it's the kind of validation that can be as hard to hold on to and just as empty as air.
Wil's journey leads him to discover that what has value above everything else lies in those everyday trivialities which carry us through, moment by moment. He befriends that Crusher kid and discovers a new path through his writing - which began and continues with, his web log Wil Wheaton dot Net. It's in his blog that he candidly shares his ups and downs, the drudge of auditions, being on the road at the 'Cons', his geekiness and nerdom, poker tales, and the absolute joys of his life - his family. This is a guy who's Just a Guy walking this orb and leaving it a little better than he found it.
Read the the book and the next time Our Town is being produced near you, go see it. Put the cynicism away for a moment and just enjoy a breath or two. And try to leave the space you're occupying a little better than you found it.
(Okay, there was poker content in there - I semi-bluffed you)
